Game apparatus



(No Model.)

R. BOOTH.

GAME APPARATUS.

UNrrnn STATES ATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT BOOTH, OF MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS.

GAME APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 557,646, dated April 7, 1896.

Application tiled October 8, 1894. Serial No. 525,270. @To model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT BOOTH, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Malden, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Parlor- Game Apparatus, of which the following is a speciiication.

My invention relates to improvements in parlor-game apparatus in which the relative positions of a series of men, figures, or pieces upon a field-board are mainly determined by chance or hazard; and its object is to provide means whereby the players may at will and instantly vary the conditions which determine the success or failure of an individual move or series of moves without exposing any portion of the change until the move is beyond recall.

My invention consists, essentially, of one or more movable determinators, either as disks, endless bands, or of other convenient forms, each having a series of permutating perforations, indentations, or projections and being provided with means for readily varying its position in relation to a perforated field-board, in combination with a series of pieces which, operated by springs either attached to themselves or contingent to the respective perforations in the eld-board, or even without any springs, serve to detect the coincidence or otherwise of the perforations in the held-board with those of the determinator and so determine the validity of the move. To add still more interest and finish to the game, I also so arrange the construction as to cause the manipulation of a piece to plainly indicate the coincidence or otherwise of the perforations by momentarily closing an electric annunciator-circuit.

ln the drawings accompanying this specification, Figure l is a plan showing the simpler form of determinator, of disk form; Fig. 2, a transverse section of the same, and Fig. 3 the same with electric indicator. Fig. 4 is a plan showing determinator of endless-band form; Fig. 5, a transverse section showing a form in which more than one determinator-surface operates to still further vary the edects of the permutations; Fig. G, a section showing t-he application of the electric annunciator to the endless-band form, and Fig. a spring detector-pin.

Similar letters refer to similar parts.

A, which is the body of the game apparatus, consists of a field-board of box form having on its upper surface a series of divisions of any desired shape and number, the counterpart of a chess or checker board, radial rows or otherwise. Each square or division is perforated, as at B, to admit of the insertion of the stem F of the man or piece E.

O is a determinator of any suitable material and of disk form ratcheted, as at R, and pivoted at T, as in Figs. l, 2, and 3, or of a flexible material, such as thin sheet-celluloid, and in the form of an endless band running over and hauled by the rollers L, provided with projections M, all as shown in Figs. 4, 5, and G. In either case it is variably perforated, as at D-that is to say, the positions of the perforations in the successive rows are dissimilar, but placed in such a manner that the paths of the perforations Will, as the determinator may be moved, aline with those of the field-board, the necessary intermittently rotary or progressive movements being imparted to the determinators by the pawl P and ratchet R, actuated by the stops or buttons S at the will of the respective players.

When the endless-band form of determinator is adopted, as in Figs. 4 and 5, I use a supporter G, perforated, as at H, to correspond with the field-board, so as to allow the stem F of the man or piece E, normally held upward by means of the spring S', to be, by pressure applied to piece, depressed within the perforation H when the various perforations B, D, and H are coincident.

As a modification 0f the above I substitute for the supporter Grthe metallic contact-plate K or its equivalent in electrical connection with the magneto bell N and dry battery V. To the field-board I attach one or more metallic plates Y electrically connected to the alternate electrode of the battery, so that by means of pressure applied to an inserted metallic piece electrical connection may be made between the plates K and Y through coinciding perforations, thus completing the IOO electric circuit and causing the bell to operate. The bell N may evidently be supplanted by a deiiecting-needle, incandescent lamp, or other means of making evident the completion of the electric circuit.

The main features of my invention as a parlor game may be briefly described as follows: The players may be two or more, each takinga certain number of men, properly distingnished by color or form, placing them on his side of the board, moves and captures in a manner similar to checkers, but with this particular variation. Each square becomes lucky if a perforation in the determinator coincides with that of the square, in which case a player moving to it is entitled to another move, and again and again until he encounters a blind square, or one under which no perforation in the determinator is coincident. In a similar manner an attempted capture of one or more men is not valid unless the player in such attempt plays a lucky square. rIhe combination of lucky and blind squares may be instantly changed by either player at any time by pressing the stop or button.

The game may also be made one requiring a good memory by an agreement on the part of the players not to change the combination during the progress of the game.

It will be evident from the above that the determinators may be either of conductive or of insulative material, or a combination of both, provided they are so arranged as, by perforations'or by the superimposition of portions of the alternative material, as at m, Fig. 3, that they will produce the variable conditions as above described, and that the determinators may be either one, two, or more endless bands, or one, two, or more disks prepared as above described and rotated at the same or varied speed and in either direction.

Having thus described my invention, its construction and object, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a parlor-game apparatus, adivisioned field-board with perforations or slots, and one or more men, pieces or figures provided with pins or stems, in combination with one or more movable permutating-determinators having certain perforations, indentations or projections and means for supporting and rotating said determinators, together with means for indicating the result of a move as determined by the coincidence (or the variation) of given perforations in the iield-board with the perforations, indentations or proj ections of the movable determinators and as detected by the playing of a piece or man, all substantially as shown and for the purpose specified.

2. In a parlor-game apparatus, a divisioned held-board with perforations or slots in combination with one or more movable permutating-determinators having certa-in perforations, indentations or projections, and means for rotating said determinators, all substantially as set forth.

3. ln a parlor-game apparatus, a divisioned field-board with perforations or slots, and one or more men pieces or figures provided with pins or stems, in combination with one or more movable permutating-determinators having certain perfor-ations, indentations or projections and means for rotating said determinators, all substantially as set forth and for the purpose spccied.

ROBT. BOOTH.

Yit-nesses:

HENRY ll. CUMMINGS, VILsoN R. RICHARDSON. 

